Viz Artist User Guide

Version 5.0 | Published December 20, 2022 ©

Transition Logic

Transition Logic is first and foremost a method of designing a graphics package that allows the designer to maintain the look and feel of the graphics while also allowing anyone else, such as journalists or producers, to add graphics items to a rundown without the need for any kind of technical knowledge of how the system works. Transition Logic allows the independent control of any number of graphics layers, providing a code-free and design-based method for building graphics that gracefully animates in and out, and transitions from one to another automatically. This is accomplished by using a Master Scene which coordinates the animation of independently controlled objects which make up the whole. The master scene commonly contains the background items of the graphics package. Such items can be looping backgrounds or the design items of the lower third, over the shoulders, and full-screen graphics. The variable or changing content, such as the text in a lower third, is stored separately in Object Scenes.

When a lower third is played On Air, the object scene for the lower third is triggered. This tells the engine to load the master scene, place the object scene inside the master, and animate the appropriate timeline(s). Thankfully, all of that is handled automatically, which is what makes Transition Logic so valuable.

Transition Logic scenes are designed with a built in logic that allows for morphing background graphics, handles multiple layers of graphics, and manages the transition from the graphic to graphic of each layer. The built in logic also minimizes the operator’s need to know how scenes affect each other, as the considerations of these various options are handled in the design phase. This ultimately results in a simplified work-flow and a look that is consistent and glitch-free.

To understand what Transition Logic is, one needs to understand a few basic concepts:

  • A Transition Logic scene is not a single scene, but a set of Viz graphics scenes that consist of a masterscene that may have multiple layers of graphics that can be On Air at the same time and independently controlled.

  • Each layer in the master scene may have multiple referring object scenes. However, only one object scene per layer can be active at any given time.

  • Transition Logic layers are conceptual, not spatial.

    Note: With Transition Logic scene design, take in and take out commands are still used as with standalone scene design. Where standalone scene design demands that only a single scene can be On Air at a time, however, Transition Logic allows for more than one scene to be On Air simultaneously. This means using Transition Logic allows a graphic covering the lower third of the screen, and another covering the left and/or the right side of the screen for over the shoulder graphics, to be On Air at the same time.


Transition Logic can be played out by most of Vizrt’s control applications such as Viz Trio, Viz Pilot and Viz Multichannel.

This section contains information on the following topics: